Heavy side spin service return
General
Steve Unknown Asked 15 years ago
Coach,
I recently played in a tournament where a player had a side spin serve. However, the spin was so heavy that I kept chopping/pushing the ball out to the left of the table (out of bounds). We were tied in a game to 11 at 5-5 but he ended up winning the game 11-6 since he served to me that same heavy side spin serve about 4 times in the match (on which I could not return with a back hand push and a chop)
Do you have any suggestions on what action I should use against such a serve? Do I need a special/strong rubber to counter heavy side spins?
I love your advice on other questions and would definitely appreicate if you shed some light onto this situation.
Thanks!
Steve
Alois Rosario Answered 15 years ago
Hi Steve,
The key is to angle your bat so that the ball then moves more to the right.
Use your bat like a rudder to steer the ball over to where you want it to go and counter where the spin is taking it.
Keep it that simple and you will start to learn how to counter such sidespin serves.
Remember it is a frustrating thing to do because it takes our brains a while to adjust. It will happen eventually and you will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Recommended Video
Returning a Heavy Backspin Serve
A lot of players will serve to you with heavy backspin. In this video we show you how to return this effectively.
Watch NowThoughts on this question
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Andrew T Posted 15 years ago
Hey guys,
I usually have trouble returning this serve too, even though ironically it is my best serve. My take on returning serves with sidespin is to try to hit the ball in the direction that the ball is spinning towards to varying degrees. For example if the ball is spinning to your right, aim towards the right as the ball will bounce off your racket to the left.
Andrew T
Jon Ferguson Posted 13 years ago
A very good player at our club suggested the following- aim the tip of your blade towards the direction of movement of the server, and strike the ball with a short jabbing motion to reduce contact time. This will return a lot of the spin back to your opponent. Using a pimple-out rubber helps to reduce the grip of the ball on the blade, but is not essential.
So if the server's blade moves to your left, aim your blade to your left, at roughly a 45 degree angle. You also need to watch for side/back spin, pure side spin, or side/ top spin. This governs the "tilt" of your blade.
Using the flick technique is possible too if the ball bounces high enough close to the net.
Jon Pia Ferguson
HI Jon,
That is an idea. I think though that experience is essential to allow for the small differences in the spin and as you pointed out to allow for the different types of spin.
RJ K Posted 8 years ago
Another solution to this is to mimic the same spinning motion that the server made on the return. So if the server emits side-spin paddle motion going from his left (your right) to his right (your left) you do the exact same thing back when your return the ball - you hit it using a sideways paddle motion going from your left to your right. This cancels out their spin and sends it right back at them You do the same when they are going their right (your left) to their left (your right) - you mimic that motion when contacting the ball going from your right to your left soft of paddle motion. This seems a lot easier to do than trying to find the correct angles and things. One disadvantage of this technique is if there is an especially fast and heavy side-spin serve going into an awkward 'hard to reach' angle where you can't implement any sideways motion of your own that easily in the return (no time) but for the lower level and intermediate players and older less agile bodies, you are doomed anyway with returning super fast serves so just give them that point and be done with it.